Secession, State, and Liberty (Paperback)

~ David Gordon (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The political impulse to secede - to attempt to separate from central government control - is a conspicuous feature of the post-cold war world. It is alive and growing in Canada, Russia, China, Italy, Belgium, Britain, and even the United States Yet secession remains one of the least studied and least understood of all historical and political phenomena. The contributors to this volume have filled this gap with wide-ranging investigations - rooted in history, political philosophy, ethics, and economic theory - of secessionist movements in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

About the Author

David Gordon is senior fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is the author of Resurrecting Marx: The Analytical Marxists on Exploitation, Freedom, and Justice, available from Transaction, The Philosophical Origins of Austrian Economics, and Critics of Marxism. He has contributed more than 100 articles to such journals as Analysis, The International Philosophic Quarterly, The Journal of Libertarians Studies, and The Review of Austrian Economics and is the editor of the Mises Review.

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Transaction Publishers (February 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765809435
• ISBN-13: 978-0765809438
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #162,019 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Secession is dead only if might makes right, August 19, 2002

By	Andrew S. Rogers (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

As editor David Gordon notes in his introduction, secession may be the most under-theorized concept in political science. Although the few Americans who bother to defend the idea are usually smeared as "neo-Confederates" or worse (is there anything worse?), a simple look at the last decade's headlines shows that secession is not only an idea, but an event, all over the world. From Quebec to Yugoslavia, the Baltic States to Chechnya, Scotland to Los Angeles, people are willing to defy the holy memory of St. Abraham Lincoln and "dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another." Gordon and his contributors have rediscovered, dusted off, and re-articulated for a new century one of the most basic political rights of all, the right of self-determination.

A large portion of this collection of essays, as you might expect, examines the pre-eminent example of secession in American history, the Confederacy. The three essays dealing with this period -- Joseph Stromberg's "Republicanism, Federalism, and Secession in the South, 1790-1865;" Thomas DiLorenzo's "Yankee Confederates: New England Secession Movements Prior to the War Between the States;" and James Ostrowski's "Was the Union Army's Invasion of the Confederate States a Lawful Act? An Analysis of President Lincoln's Legal Arguments Against Secession" -- form the core of the book. However, this title is more than just an apologetic for the South. Philosophical, legal, and political analyses by other contributors provide a solid framework for secession as a political theory in our era as well.

The last essay, Bruce Benson's look at arbitration as an alternative to state-run judicial systems in commerce and trade, provides a true-life example of a type of modern individual "secession," and recalls Mises' suggestion (quoted by several contributors) that the right to secession can ultimately be carried down to the community, home, and even individual level. Murray Rothbard reinforces this idea in "Nations by Consent: Decomposing the Nation State."

This is a very important and valuable book, challenging as it does the accepted, post-1865 wisdom of Constitutional interpretation. Secession didn't die at Appomattox, either as a political theory or as a right inherent to each state in the American union. As several of the contributors note, secession (and the threat of it) is the single most powerful check on the expansion of federal power -- which, of course, explains why, from Lincoln on down, so many people have worked so feverishly to discredit it. But truth is just truth, and no matter how hard the "enlightened" classes try to deny it, analyses like the ones in this collection show that a true idea cannot be silenced forever.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best discussion on Secession ever., July 30, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Greenville, South Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secession, State, and Liberty (Hardcover)

This book is the best discussion on the subject of Secession I have ever seen. This topic is so important and yet so ignored. No one can understand the "Civil War" with out understanding this important topic. The Right of succession is a crucial element of protecting liberty and this book Provides the best possible understanding of it available.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have, March 3, 1999

By	William J. Murphy (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Secession, State, and Liberty (Hardcover)

This is an absolutely masterful book that deserves a great deal more attention than I fear it will ever receive. It deals with one of the most overlooked issues in political theory, secession. Although most people think that the American Civil War settled the issue for all time, the authors of this book beg to differ. From a variety of different vantage points and ideologies, secession is given the support that it so deserves. Secession is rooted in individual liberty and any opposition ultimately requires an outright act of force. It is this crucial fact that much of this book is based upon. Issues of secession, past, present, and future are all dealt with accordingly. This book should be on the bookshelf of every individual with a serious interest in libertarian political philosophy.